Pokemon are no laughing matter. Just as some monsters are rare and sought after in the in-game and anime Pokemon universes, others are coveted and desired here in the real-world. From Pokemon with special abilities, moves, forms, or competitive stats, players everywhere will spend the time and/or money necessary to make sure they get a leg up on their competition or in their personal collection.
For years, Game Freak and The Pokemon Company have had to bring down the ban-hammer on players using modified or hacked Pokemon in both online and in-person tournaments. In fact, The Pokemon Company just recently came out with a statement cautioning players in possession of "altered" Pokemon, and now, it seems that one man in Japan is already facing a harsh penalty for selling some hacked monsters in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
A 23-year-old man from Nagoya, Japan has been arrested by residents of Aichi Prefecture for violating the country's Unfair Competition Prevention Act for illegally modifying Pokemon Sword and Shield save data in order to sell players altered Pokemon. It seems that the suspect modified the abilities of some Shiny Pokemon, and also allegedly sold a hacked Sobble to a Kyoto man for 4,400 Japanese yen, or approximately $42.
The hacked Sobble was reportedly sold to the Kyoto office worker back in April of 2020, and it seems that the suspect has been selling hacked Pokemon for about a year now, reportedly earning 1,150,000 yen, or about $10,000, in sales. The desktop PC used by the suspect to re-write the games' save data was shown by the prefectural police at a press conference today. According to Asahi News, the 23-year-old man has reportedly confessed to the crime. Among other provisions, the Japan's Unfair Competition Prevention Act both is meant to protect against both the illegal modification of video game save data and the selling of illegally re-written save data to others.
It seems that the release of Pokemon Home, a cloud-based Pokemon storage service for mobile phones and the Nintendo Switch, has allowed some players to get more creative with the ways in which they modify hacked Pokemon. Additionally, just a few weeks ago, Niantic won a lawsuit against development team Global++ for the creation of a Pokemon GO cheating application, so it looks like The Pokemon Company is dead-set on weeding out cheaters in any of its games.
While the The Pokemon Company may be busy cracking down on Pokemon cheaters everywhere, it likely still has its hands full with preparations for Pokemon's 25th anniversary celebration this year. While things like a music program headlined by Katy Perry have been announced for the anniversary, fans can be sure to expect more as Pokemon Day approaches later this month.
Pokemon Sword and Shield are available on the Switch.
Source: Asahi News